Poor Prince Charles and the Battle of Worcester.

Sunday 17th August, 2014 in Worcester.
We awoke to a sunny morning (and yet again to the raucous chorus of gulls at 5:00am!). After breakfast, we moved MM up through the next two (narrow) locks. M was dismayed to see a lot of detritus in the water, all too reminiscent of Camp Hill in Birmingham - but the reason is that the water which goes through the locks is pumped back up to the top of the locks, so there is no flow to remove the debris that floats on the surface. Fortunately, it was only a problem on these two locks.
Beside one of the locks is "The "Commandery", which was the headquarters for Prince Charles (who became Charles II) during the Battle of Worcester, the final and decisive battle in the Civil War.

Over the years, the buildings have also been a hospital, print works, college for the blind and a private house, but now it is a museum.
After the second lock, we moored up and walked in to the town. On the way we passed the site of the old city walls.

We also passed the house from which Prince Charles fled after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester as he set out for temporary exile in France.

In the gargantuan branch of M&S we went shopping and even M admitted that it amounted to more than a "few bits". Quite a lot of bits actually! The reason for this is that tomorrow we have our choir friends Debbie and Adrian coming for four days. Three years ago, M's choir held a "promise auction" to raise funds for the choir and we rather rashly offered a four-day, three-night "Cunard Style Cruise" on the yet-to-be-launched MM.  Debbie and Adrian were determined to win the cruise and ended up paying a small fortune for it (much to the benefit of choir funds!). So three years later, we have finally managed to agree a suitable date and they are coming tomorrow, therefore considerable restocking of the fridge is necessary!
Of course, R had to have his Costa, watched rather disapprovingly by Queen Anne from the magnificent facade of the Town Hall, not to mention Kings Charles I and Charles II on either side of the door. Quite a line up!!!

Back on board, we unpacked the groceries and set off for the marina where we filled up with diesel and water. The very friendly and helpful staff kindly said that Debbie and Adrian can leave their car here for the four days that we will be away.
One of the staff used to keep her boat at Enslow Marina, so we had a long chat about Kingsground and Enslow.
Today: 1 mile, 2 locks and 1.2 hours.
Trip: 210 miles, 113 locks and 151.1 hours.